Billiards: Advani leads nine Indians into last 16

Leeds: Title contender Pankaj Advani led a field of nine Indians into the pre-quarter-finals of the World Billiards championship (timed format) along with two other favourites Peter Gilchrist and David Causier here Monday.

Along with Advani, the other Indians who qualified for the round of 16, which will be played over three hours later Monday night, were: Rupesh Shah, Alok Kumar, Devendra Joshi, Ashok Shandilya, Sourav Kothari, Balachandra Bhaskar, Aditya Agarwal and Dhruv Sitwala.

Advani, the 29-year old from Bangalore, crafted a 318, his second triple-century break of the tournament, while defeating England's Jonathan Marwood 814-356, and Causier outclassed Australia's Neil Bolton 1119-451 with a massive run of 403 marking the Englishman's progress.

Causier's 403 was the third highest break of the tournament so far, behind Peter Gilchrist's 551 and Robert Hall's 406.